A previous survey of students at the University of Pannonia showed that students with high EQs are assertive, optimistic, motivated, more adaptable, happier, and successfully sup- port personal relationships (Kővári, 2011) than their peers with medium or low EQs. Further- more, a study examining the level of emotional intelligence of Veszprém residents (Kővári, 2013) found that the level of emotional intelligence of 747 respondents was 5.16, which is aver- age, but higher than the average of emotional intelligence among university students (4.89). In the present research, we would like to assess emotional intelligence research by complementing it with a mapping of cultural attitudes.
By cultural intelligence, we mean the ability to interact and collaborate effectively with people from other cultural backgrounds (Earley – Ang, 2003). While EQ helps the individual express our emotions and understand or even influence others’ moods, CQ puts these inter- personal situations into the cultural context (Pásztor, 2020). CQ has behavioural, motivational, cognitive, and metacognitive aspects, which can be measured and developed. People and com- munities with higher CQs adapt more quickly to other cultures and are much more successful in community life (Moon, 2010) because CQ can be defined as an ability to understand and interpret the different cultural setups (Karma – Vedina, 2009).
The Cognitive dimension shows the available cultural knowledge of the individual (e.g., traditions, laws of other cultures). The Metacognition dimension shows the consciousness and the strategy of the application of cultural knowledge. The Behaviour dimension shows the in- dividual’s adaptability when they encounter intercultural interaction (e.g., change of tone and speed of speech, nonverbal communication, gestures). The Motivation dimension is the most critical aspect because the individual has to be motivated to collect cultural knowledge. Later, they have to apply this particular knowledge in interpersonal situations to succeed. As one of the most essential aspects of CQ, this dimension has a significant relationship with job perfor- mance abroad (Chen et al., 2010). Thus, Motivation has to be high in the student’s case if they want to gain professional experience abroad or build an international career. The average CQ of a society can show how the county will treat the immigrants (Dagher, 2010). The level of CQ can measured by the Cultural Intelligence Scale (CQS) and it can be developed quickly, mainly by cultural exposure (Pásztor, 2021).
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Edit Kővári – Szilvia Kántor – Judit Pásztor
UNIVERSITY COMMUNITY’S CULTURAL AND EMOTIONAL ATTITUDES, LOCAL IDENTITY AND QUALITY OF LIFE WITHIN THE VESZPRÉM-BALATON 2023 ECoC
Basic questions about attitude:
a) What is the level of cultural and emotional intelligence that characterises the university community? What is the relationship between EQ and CQ?
b) What is the difference in the cultural attitudes of different generations?
c) What kind of tourism mobility can be characterised by the examined target group?
d) During the years of preparation for the ECoC, how will the attitude of the university community(ies) change?
Basic questions of identity:
a) What are the economic and social impacts of the recreational and tourism consumption of the examined target group in the area of Veszprém 2023?
b) What is the perception of the examined target group about Veszprém 2023?
c) How do identity and quality of life relate to settlement factors, specifically in terms of cultural consumption?
In this study, the partial results will be presented. We analysed the respondents’ attitudes toward the attachment to Veszprém and their satisfaction with the city. The possible effect of the ECoC status of Veszprém has been measured as well. We analysed the level of cultural and emotional intelligence that characterises the university community. Three groups have been made to make the analysis more detailed: students, academic staff (lecturers, professors, and researchers) and non-academic employees.
Methodology
Complex, qualitative exploratory methods have been planned to be used in the first step, followed by quantitative methods. Quantitative research using mathematical-statistical meth- ods (online questionnaire) was carried out with the participation of the community of the Uni- versity of Pannonia. Field work happened Autumn 2020, and Spring 2021. In the course of the research, the data collection is supplemented by structured interviews, focus group interviews, and content analysis. During the analyses, we used descriptive statistics. In this study, we focus on the partial results of the questionnaire.
The research group members collected data on paper, and the online version has been sent to the students and staff via email as well. Participants received written instructions about how to fill the survey, which took approximately 20 minutes.
The online questionnaire contained 49 questions in five main parts: local identity and place attachment, emotional intelligence (EQ), recreation and tourism mobility, cultural intel- ligence (CQ), and demographics. It was not compulsory to fill in all parts of the questionnaire, so partial responses were also attained. The local identity and place attachment part received 318, the EQ, CQ, and the demographics 190 answers.
Results
Our research has both scientific and practical significance. As the research applies a com- plex (qualitative and quantitative, longitudinal data collection) methodology, we expect to contribute to the successful implementation of the Veszprém 2023 ECoC in a scientifically substantiated way. The research also has theoretical and practical significance.
First of all, we sum up the demographic characteristics of the respondents. Altogether 542 persons started to fill in the questionnaire, of whom 190 persons completed it fully, and the remaining 352 persons did it only partially. As the demographic questions were at the end of the questionnaire, there is a relatively high proportion of those who have not been completed this part.
There were 28.57% males and 71.43% females in the sample. As for their age, the mean value was 32.76 (SD = 12.51; min = 19; max = 66 years). According to their residence, 39.15% of the respondents lived in Veszprém, 60.85% lived elsewhere. The respondents also provided data from their connections with the University of Pannonia. The majority of them were students (55.61%), followed by the group of the non-academic staff (23.47%) and the academic employ- ees (20.92%) The 74.07% of the students studied at the Faculty of Business and Economics, 11.11% studied at the Faculty of Engineering, 8.33% studied at the Faculty of Modern Philology and Social Sciences and 6.48% studied at the Faculty of Information Technology. As for the non-academic staff and academic staff, the biggest group of respondents worked at the Faculty of Engineering (52.17%) and the Faculty of Business and Economics (19.57%).
Local identity
After the demographics, the respondents provided information from their attachments toward Veszprém. We intended to map their general way of feelings related to this town with two questions: “Would you recommend Veszprém as a place to live to your friends and acquaint- ances?” and “Would you recommend Veszprém as a destination to your friends and acquaintanc- es?” (based on a seven-point Likert scale, where 1 = “not at all” and 7 = “fully”). Based on the results, the respondents seemed satisfied with Veszprém. The mean value was 5.61 (SD = 1.481) in the case of the residence. As for the destination, the mean value was 5.90 (SD = 1.452).
Respondents were asked to evaluate their satisfaction with different factors regarding Veszprém (based on a seven-point Likert scale, where 1 = “not satisfied” and 7 = “totally sat- isfied”). The people were most satisfied with the following based on the mean values: natural endowments, history of the settlement, attractions, public safety, and calmness of the city. The least satisfactory factors were: entertainment options, local public transport, health care, park- ing, real estate prices.
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Edit Kővári – Szilvia Kántor – Judit Pásztor
UNIVERSITY COMMUNITY’S CULTURAL AND EMOTIONAL ATTITUDES, LOCAL IDENTITY AND QUALITY OF LIFE WITHIN THE VESZPRÉM-BALATON 2023 ECoC
Veszprém as European Capital of Culture
There were some questions in connection with the European Capital of Culture (ECoC) programme’s reputation. The absolute majority of the respondents (97.75%) heard about the fact that Veszprém won the ECoC title for 2023. Respondents had the possibility to highlight those areas that would affect their lives as a result of the ECoC title (Figure 1).
Figure 1 Areas that could affect the life of the respondents Source: own data, based on the online questionnaire
Figure 1 shows that respondents thought that leisure programmes, new events, and urban infrastructure development projects would be the most decisive. Respondents also chose those development projects and programmes that are welcomed by them the most regarding the ECoC (Figure 2). Based on the results, respondents wanted more programmes, a new tidy and clean settlement and road network and infrastructure projects.
Figure 2 Needed development projects by the respondents Source: own data, based on the online questionnaire
Emotional intelligence (EQ) of the community of the University of Pannonia
Emotional intelligence has been measured by the Hungarian version of TEIQue (Petrides, 2001), translated by Göndör and Komlósi (2012). This scale measures the EQ of the individual based on their personality traits. The TEIQue contains 30 statements rated by participants on a seven-point agreement scale, ranging from completely disagree (1) to completely agree (7).
The TEIQue items are clustered under four different factors: Self-control, Well-being, Sociability, and Emotionality (Petrides, 2009). In the present study, trait-EQ’s internal consistency was 0.88;
the five traits were 0.82 for Well-being, 0.55 for Self-control, and 0.62 for Emotionality, 0.75 for Sociability.
There were no significant differences between the groups regarding the total average score of EQ. The whole community’s average EQ is 153.81 (SD = 21.75, min = 98, max = 205). As Fig- ure 3 shows, the EQ’s weakest dimension was the Sociability dimension (M = 4.68), followed by Self-control (M = 4.76). Emotionality reached 5.24 on the seven-point Likert scale on average.
At the same time, the most significant EQ dimension was the Well-being of the respondents (M
= 5.59).
Figure 3 Mean value of EQ dimensions Source: own data, based on the online questionnaire
Significant differences showed in the Self-control dimension between the students and the academic employees (F = 4.499, p = 0.012). The academic staff had higher self-control scores than the students. The average scores of each group are presented in Table 2.
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Edit Kővári – Szilvia Kántor – Judit Pásztor
UNIVERSITY COMMUNITY’S CULTURAL AND EMOTIONAL ATTITUDES, LOCAL IDENTITY AND QUALITY OF LIFE WITHIN THE VESZPRÉM-BALATON 2023 ECoC
Groups EQ
total score
EQ dimensions
Well-being Self-control Emotionality Sociability
Students Mean 150.48 33.04 27.57* 41.03 27.60
SD 20.18 5.82 5.37 6.39 6.23
Academic
employees Mean 159.51 34.29 30.07* 42.66 29.49
SD 22.02 5.86 5.04 6.83 6.49
Non-academic employees
Mean 156.61 33.96 29.46 43.39 28.02
SD 24.01 5.92 4.65 7.08 7.46
Total Mean 153.81 33.52 28.54 41.92 28.09
SD 21.75 5.85 5.23 6.69 6.60
Notes: * p < 0.05
Table 2 Average EQ (and EQ dimension points of each group) Source: own data, based on the online questionnaire
Cultural intelligence (CQ) of the community of the University of Pannonia
Cultural intelligence has been measured by the Hungarian version of the Cultural In- telligence Scale (CQS) (Ang et al, 2007; Balogh, 2011). The CQS contains 20 statements rat- ed by participants on a seven-point agreement scale, ranging from completely disagree (1) to completely agree (7). The CQS items are clustered under four different factors: Cognition, Metacognition, Motivation, Behaviour. In the present study, CQ’s internal consistency was 0.94;
the five traits were 0.89 for Motivation, 0.90 for Behaviour, 0.89 for Cognition, and 0.87 for Metacognition.
CQ’s total score ranged between 20 and 140 points, the average score was 90.57 (SD = 22.66, min = 20, max = 138), and significant differences have been found between the groups.
The weakest dimension of CQ was the Cognitive dimension (M = 3.88), which indicates that the community of the University of Pannonia has no enough cultural knowledge; this dimension can be developed quickly by lectures related to cultural differences. The Metacognitive dimen- sion has been more substantial (M = 4.48), followed by Motivation (M = 4.81). The most signif- icant dimension was the Behaviour (M = 5.07 on a seven-point Likert scale), which indicated that the community was open to new cultural experiences and ready to adapt to the different intercultural situations (Figure 4).
Figure 4 Mean value of CQ dimensions Source: own data, based on the online questionnaire
Table 3 summarises the average CQ total scores and the dimensions as well. We found no significant differences regarding the total score of CQ of each group. The scores between students and academic employees (lecturers, professors, and researchers) indicate significant differences in the Cognitive (F = 7.659, p = 0.007) and Metacognitive dimensions (F = 4.019, p
= 0.019) as well. The age of the two groups could explain the differences because age and CQ correlate significantly (rCognitive = 0.215, p < 0.05, MMetacognitive = 0.183, p < 0.01).
Groups CQ
total score
CQ dimensions
Motivation Behaviour Cognition Metacognition
Students Mean 87.61 23.92 24.44 22.06** 17.18*
SD 22.44 7.03 7.88 7.59 5.68
Academic
employees Mean 98.12 24.59 27.12 26.36** 20.05*
SD 23.72 7.80 7.81 7.07 5.24
Non-academic
employees Mean 90.87 23.85 26.00 23.30 17.72
SD 21.07 7.77 5.73 7.11 5.46
Total Mean 90.57 24.04 25.37 23.26 17.91
SD 22.66 7.34 7.47 7.53 5.63
Notes: * p < 0.05, ** p < 0.01
Table 3 Average CQ (and CQ dimension points of each group) Source: own data, based on the online questionnaire
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Edit Kővári – Szilvia Kántor – Judit Pásztor
UNIVERSITY COMMUNITY’S CULTURAL AND EMOTIONAL ATTITUDES, LOCAL IDENTITY AND QUALITY OF LIFE WITHIN THE VESZPRÉM-BALATON 2023 ECoC